This press release has the surprising news that Bungie and Activision have signed a 10-year deal for an exclusive, worldwide partnership, saying "The groundbreaking alliance will provide Bungie its first such partnership since splitting off from Microsoft in 2007, significantly broadening its global reach by providing the resources and support to develop, distribute and release games worldwide on multiple platforms and devices." Word is: "Under the terms of the agreement, Activision will have exclusive, worldwide rights to publish and distribute all future Bungie games based on the new intellectual property on multiple platforms and devices. Bungie remains an independent company and will continue to own their intellectual property. Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed." Microsoft acquired Bungie back in 2000, but in 2007 a plan was announced to return the independence of the Halo developer, though at the time is was stated that Microsoft Game Studios, which owns the Halo IP, would retain an equity share in the company. "We chose to partner with Activision on our next IP because of their global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise," said Harold Ryan, President of Bungie. "From working together over the past nine months on this agreement, it is clear that Activision supports our commitment to giving our fans the best possible gaming experiences."

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Donít fool yourself for one min Beamer into thinking that Activsion wonít be pulling the strings with Bungie, because they will be. As for M$ owning Bungie, that was after they had announced Halo for the PC. Halo was always mean for the PC first. Then M$ came along and saw the potential of Halo for their Xbox launch and turned Halo into a consolitis release only.

You can say what you want and think but in the end, Activsion will be making the calls on any IP Bungie creates. Activision will be funding their projects and when someone is funding you, youíre at their mercy. I know this for a fact. A good friend of mine owns his own gaming company and heís told me all of the horror stories that go on behind the scenes. Itís not pretty at all. If you think so just take a good look at IW and all the crap thatís coming down from that one. Yea, Activsion doesnít own Bungie, but they will be calling the shots.